[Revisited] A Possible Destiny

Well I finally caved and picked up a copy of Destiny 2; it was inevitable I suppose. I’ve only played a little bit so far, and I’m mildly surprised to say that I’m enjoying it so far. At launch, it’s far and away better than the original Destiny was at launch. So much so that I thought it might be interesting to bring back this post and compare the two. Has Destiny grown as much as I’d hoped it would…no, but it’s close. What’s really funny is that I was right on the money here in terms of how reviews work now. We really don’t have just plain reviews anymore. They’re “reviews in progress” and “review diaries”. 😀 Anyway, what do you think of all this? Would you say Destiny left an impact after all?

The release of Destiny is important. It is. Whether you love the game or hate the game, our general reaction to its release has made it important. Many of us, while definitely enjoying the game, have found ourselves disappointed with everything surrounding the core gameplay: the story, the characters, the by-the-numbers feeling that creeps up on you as you shoot your way though another gang of enemies, and so on. The reviews available so far have been fair and have definitely reflected this, yet it kind of feels like we’re all holding back somehow. It’s as if we feel like it’s too early to be casting our final judgments on the game since it just came out, but that’s just it: the very fact that many of us are approaching it this way is telling. We want the game to be better. We want to give it time to become better, and the real crazy catch of it is that, for perhaps the first time, it’s a desire that could actually be fulfilled!

It’s no secret that both Bungie and Activision have gone on record saying that they’re planning on supporting this new franchise for the haul. We’ve already got an expansion due out in December, with another set to release sometime early next year. It’s clear that the game as it is at launch is most definitely not going to be the same game even a year from now. So for perhaps the first time, we have a console game with the potential to grow from just “good” or “average” into “great” or even “excellent”! It’s a game with the potential for improvement within its lifetime, and that’s something most of us have never seen before. This potential presents us with a question though: “When can we consider it done?”

It’s generally considered unfair to judge a game before it’s finished. After all, how can you accurately judge what game is worth before all of it’s gameplay elements and features are fully implemented and polished? You’re not getting the true experience without them, so how can you tell whether or not it’s really good or bad? If Destiny actually does manage to raise itself up to a higher standard as content is added, then we’ll suddenly find ourselves at the beginning of a new phase of game development and reception.

Suddenly launch reviews and impressions will be representative only of a game’s launch state, not the game itself. The review process might become on-going rather than one-off as games are consistently improved in the months and even years after the initial launch. Gamers will be faced with new decisions regarding their game purchases, not just of whether or not to buy a game at launch, but also of how much post development we want to wait for before buying, or even how much of it we’re going to want to support in advance.

Destiny has the potential to be one of the most important launches in the last several years of gaming, one that could change many things about how the industry works. All it has to do is address the problems of its launch state and actually improve as more content is released!

What are your thoughts on Destiny? Do you see the same potential in its release or perhaps something else? Would you want games become on-going works (even more than they are now)?

Seems like you nailed too. The game is constantly growing, getting tweaked, and getting adjusted. It’s definitely been a work-in-progress since the beginning, and still is. It’s been an overall fun ride at least though.

I like Destiny. I liked it when it first released (due to its strong mechanics) and I like how they improved on it over the next three years. Due to the type of game that Destiny is, I’m OK with it growing and evolving. It is in essence, a living game. I don’t want to see, for instance, Tomb Raider or Uncharted go down that road but I think games like Destiny and The Division, are fine in being continuously upgraded and changed.

Yeah, seeing more traditional experiences following this route would be disheartening. We’d never get to feel like we finished a game or got the most out of the experience if they did. There’s certainly a place for Destiny and the Division out there though. They just need to make sure the launch versions have enough content. Destiny 2 has just about enough, but it would have been better if they had launched it with more.

I echo whats been said as far as this being the type of “living” game that makes sense that not only does the content keep coming, but the reviews take a “there’s more coming” approach as well.

I wonder – do you think that games have the potential to be so so big now, so expansive, that you could literally never finish working on them? (Okay, maybe not literally.)

Star Citizen is my Exhibit A here. With the resources at their disposal, it has to be difficult to know when to stop, when to move when you know it could be just a little better with a little more time….

With a triple A game like Destiny, I could see the developers setting the date knowling full well that a third of the stuff they’ve been working on is still in the pipeline.

With more games being delivered as a service these, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to expect more games with long lifespans. Destiny 1 lasted about 3 years in terms of content updates and support. The Division is still hanging in there too. This method of delivering content has proven profitable, so it’s doubtful that it won’t expand.

As for Star Citizen, I’m thinking that it’ll need to release and be successful before anyone will follow their lead. Right now, I’m seeing it as a unique project in terms of its ambition. No one has tried to make a game of Star Citizen’s scale, scope, and depth before. It fine that they keep making it bigger and bigger, but I’m thinking that they need to define the base set of features they want to launch with. Otherwise, they probably *will* never launch the game, much less finish it.